For the financial year 2000-01, the average individual annual wage and salary income for wage and salary earners in the Australian Capital Territory was $39,580. This was an increase of 4.5% over the previous year ($37,886) and an 18.7% increase overall on the average in 1995-96 ($33,342). The average annual rate of increase since 1995-96 has been 3.5%.

Average earnings for employees in the Australian Capital Territory over the period shown, 1995-96 to 2000-01, have been the highest in Australia. In both 1995-96 and 2000-01 the difference between the ACT and Australian averages was around $4,850, although in the intervening years the difference fell to around $4,210 in 1997-98. In percentage terms this difference overall, has fallen from 17.0% in 1995-96 to 13.9% in 2000-01. On average, employees in the Australian Capital Territory, in 2000-01, earned almost $9,170, or 30.2%, more than those in Tasmania, the state with the lowest average wage and salary income. The employee workforce in the Australian Capital Territory is characterised by managers, professionals and clerical workers in Government administration and defence and other business services. Computing and other advanced technology, including research and development, further define a relatively highly qualified workforce.

Total wage and salary income paid to the territory's wage and salary earners increased from $4.9 billion in 1995-96 to $5.8 billion in 2000-01, an increase of 18.9%. The average annual rate of increase over this period was 3.5% while the increase between 1999-00 and 2000-01 was significantly higher at 5.1%. Over the five year period the number of wage and salary earners fell from around 146,600 persons in 1995-96 to around 142,550 in 1996-97 before increasing in each of the following years to 146,880 in 2000-01. Overall, the increase in the number of wage and salary earners from 1995-96 to 2000-01 was 0.2% while from 1996-97 to 2000-01 it was 3.0%.

AVERAGE ANNUAL WAGE AND SALARY INCOME,
Australian Capital Territory and Australia, 1995-96 to 2000-01Source: ATO Income Tax Data.

STATISTICAL SUBDIVISIONS

In 2000-01, the area with the highest average wage and salary income in the Australian Capital Territory was the South Canberra Statistical Subdivision (SSD) with $48,448. The inner suburbs of this SSD including Griffith, Forrest, Red Hill, Deakin, Yarralumla and Barton were the main contributors to the high average. Woden Valley SSD had the second highest average in the territory, $42,537, with Garran, Hughes and Curtin suburbs having the higher employee incomes.

Belconnen SSD recorded the lowest wage and salary income in 2000-01 with $37,153. However, this was still just over $2,400, or 6.9%, above the Australian average.

Over the period 1995-96 to 2000-01 the number of wage and salary earners has increased significantly in Gungahlin-Hall SSD. This is in line with general population trends in the ACT as the bulk of population growth has occurred in this area. In 2000-01, the number of wage in salary earners in Gungahlin-Hall SSD was estimated at 11,878 compared with 6,995 in 1995-96, an increase of almost 70%.

In Woden Valley and Weston Creek-Stromlo the numbers of wage and salary earners have gradually declined over the five year period while in South Canberra the number has fluctuated. After declines in the early part of this period employee numbers in North Canberra, Belconnen and Tuggeranong SSDs have increased slightly over the last two to three years but are still slightly below their levels in 1995-96.

(a) Statistical subdivisions presented in this table as ACT does not have a local government structure.(b) Average annual rate of increase.(c) Total includes data that could not be allocated to a statistical subdivision.Note: Indigenous persons engaged in CDEP projects may be included in the above data for the years 1995-96 to 1997-98 and excluded for 1998-99 onwards. Consequently changes between 1997-98 and 1998-99 and 1995-96 and 2000-01 in particular need to be treated with caution. For further details please refer to the Explanatory Notes.Source: ATO Income Tax Data.